οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν (Luke 19:40)
In doing a great deal of reading and studying material on issues concerning science and faith, I have found a common thread in the sometimes harsh and demeaning debates that take place. That theme is an overarching disagreement over the extents of the Big Three events mentioned in the early chapters of the Bible. Those events are…
What do I mean by a Matter of Extents? Take the topic of Creation for example. There are people who say that the Creation accounts in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are two different and contradicting accounts. Some say the two can be harmonized and fit nicely into an account of God creating everything in the universe in 6 literal 24 hour days. Still others say that the two fit nicely together and speak of God creating all the matter in the universe in Genesis 1:1-2 and then focusing on just the necessary ingredients to make a habitable home for His most prized creation…human beings.
In the case of the Fall and Curse, some say the Fall of Adam in Genesis 3 resulted in death for all living creatures. The subsequent Curse affected all of Creation in a way such that we can no longer see through its haze to correctly interpret earth history. Others might say the Curse was more local, involving human death only and the land adjacent to Adam.
Likewise, there are proponents of a global Flood in Genesis 6-8 in which we find the cause of most of the geologic features we see today including the entire fossil record. There are also subscribers to a local extent of the Flood which left little to no geologic evidence.
In each of these cases, there are some siding with a global or maximum extent while some adhere to a local or minimum extent. We will look at the biblical and geologic evidence if any for each interpretation of each event. Start by clicking the link above. On each page I will start by discussing the possible interpretations followed by just the biblical text. I then offer exegetical notes on each section of Scripture and list any other passages that help us to interpret the main text. Following this we will look into the implications both biblically and scientifically for each interpretation.
The Implications:
Dinosaur bones in the Jurassic Morrison Formation at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. If one believes that there was no animal death before the Fall of man in Genesis 3, then these dinosaurs must have lived at the same time as humans, and they must have died in a significant geologic event some time afterwards...the Great Flood. Conversely, if one sees no problem with animal death before the Fall, then there is the possibility that these dinosaurs lived and died potentially millions of years before humans even walked on earth. There are implications as to how we interpret different parts of Scripture, and if these implications do not hold up under scrutiny, then there may be something wrong with our interpretations (photo by author).
The main thing to realize in this section is that there are implications of our interpretations that we may not even realize. For example if we believe in a maximum extent of the Fall and Curse and say that the Bible teaches there was no animal death before the Fall, then we must believe in a maximum extent for the Flood. The reason being if there was no animal death before the Fall then all of the fossils must have been formed afterwards. The only possible means for such a vast amount of fossiliferous sediment deposition is Noah’s Flood. If one believes there was animal death before Adam’s sin, then there is no reason to be bound by interpreting a global Flood. Likewise if one believes the Creation Days in Genesis one are long geologic ages rather than 24 hour days, then there is no logical way to interpret Noah’s Flood as being global in extent.
To help, I have created an Excel spreadsheet with 35 questions relevant to the topics discussed on this website. Feel free to download and take the test to see just how you feel about these issues.
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